This week we’re joined by special guest co-host Aaron Betsky, author of Queer Space: Architecture and Same-Sex Desire and Building Sex: Men, Women, Architecture & the Construction of Sexuality. As a strong presence in the architectural discourse of gender and sexuality since the 1990s, Betsky discusses with us a few of our recent Features published under April's special editorial theme, Sex, including:
Betsky was last on the podcast in his current professional capacity as the dean at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture at Taliesin, to talk about the school's then-uncertain future. You can listen to that episode here.
Listen to episode 62 of Archinect Sessions, "Banal Sex Mansion":
Shownotes
Make Love Not Porn – Donna says: "The founder Cindy Gallop is freaking awesome, super well-spoken."
Stanley Tigerman's Daisy House (a plan view of the building is this episode's cover image)
Some Rain Must Fall by Karl Ove Knausgård (Book 5 in the My Struggle series)
The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
5 Comments
Stanley Tigerman . . . So lame.
IDK about the masculine=order/control/perminance narrative... Where does Philip Johnson or Ancient Greeks (gay-culture friendly, invented order) fit into this? The thing I always loved about architecture is that it transcends race, gender, class or creed... It's the politics, use, architects, universities, profession and media that always seek to classify, segmentize, brand, etc. Maybe we need a new Renaissance, mix it up like Michaelangelo, blur interiors, sculpture, building, etc. then again, Michaelangelo was likely Gay too...
Also, fetishizing imperminance ... I'm not a fan of this new narrative gimmick being used. Things change over time, yes, but at some point someone needs to believe in their work and decisions.
Architecture, can't transcend those things, it's all of those things, unless you're one of PE's homes, designed in a "vacuum". Peter's work always looked at the language of architecture, but even then, there's only so far you can go down that rabbit hole, before you find that's not true. Architecture is precisely, as you put it; race, gender, class or creed... It's[...]politics, use, architects, universities, profession and media that always seek to classify, segmentize, brand, etc...Always.
I believe in impermanence, just like I believe in evolution. Language, context, people, race, gender; all are fluid. And that, is beautiful, and worthy of believing.
I mean it transcends those as a physical building, but it's the use that becomes a territory for fluid politics and identity. I don't think architecture in itself reads as specific to category. That's why it was interesting/strange when Betsky so clearly defined his terms before deconstructing them with ambiguities... Contradicting himself.... his/your ideas on impermanence don't really click, I mean it's true over long periods that technology changes but not really a quality that we should aim for. "I believe in evolution" of course, but that is manifested in particular things.
my capitalism senses start tingling when I see organizations, universities etc in the identity game, makes me wonder what they are selling, but that's another story (related perhaps to the Stern interview on pedagogy .... At some point you have to make a good building).
Think someone could write a good book on sexuality, spirituality and senses as a unifipying theme against identity categorization since they seem to have so many overlaps.... Keep thinking of that with Prince in the news (best artists are not easily identified)
The Bacigalupi sounds like a great book. Been trying to read more noir and sci-fi lately. This combines both.
Banal sex... is that the alternative to Boral sex?
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